This is just a tiny detail (!) of a much larger infographic that I’d highly recommend you view in full, here.

Information is Beautiful has many other great visualizations, here.

(source)

 Silver Spring, Maryland

Born in Cork, Ireland in the 1830s, the prominent socialist and community organizer Mary Harris “Mother” Jones lost her husband and four children to a yellow fever epidemic in Tennessee in 1867, and then lost her home in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. She then spent the rest of her life fighting for worker’s rights as an activist and tireless labor organizer.

Frequently imprisoned for subversive speech and inciting “riots,” Mother Jones was hailed by her critics as the “most dangerous woman in America” and was denounced on the floor of the U.S. Senate as “the grandmother of all agitators,” a moniker she seemed to favour—the feisty matriarch also liked to refer to herself as a “hellraiser.”

Since 1976, her name has graced the masthead of the award-winning magazine Mother Jones, known for its independent stance and investigative reporting. You can listen to The Autobiography of Mother Jones on LibriVox, here.

Image: a portrait of Mother Jones by Robert Shetterly from his series Americans Who Tell The Truth.

“Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”

Tehran, Iran

These are but a few from a lovely collection of images by talented Iranian graphic designers showcased at Vitrin Rooz… (sorry, link no longer works).

Westchester County, New York

I was happy to hear from former student Jessica Bryan this week. She’s doing some interesting freelance work (such as the book cover shown here) and has an online portfolio (sorry, link broken). Jessica took part in the studio course I taught at the Hartford Art School (University of Hartford, Connecticut) back in 2006, when I was a recipient of the Georgette and Richard Koopman Distinguished Chair in the Visual Arts.

Keep up the good work, Jessica!

Paris, France

While use of the traditional poster may be on the wane elsewhere, the medium has thrived at the convivial Willi’s Wine Bar, here in the city of lights. For over 25 years, Willi’s has commissioned a contemporary artist to create an annual image for the ongoing limited edition Willi’s Bottle Art Collection, a great promotional vehicle as well as a hit with collectors.

Some vintage mid-century illustrations from an impressive online collection, here (warning: gender roles oh-so-clearly delineated).

1000 words’ worth of insight by Riber Hanssen of Stockholm

Winnipeg, Canada

My colleague Adrian Shum returned to the office this week (following a raucous visit to Toronto and Niagara Falls to fête an old friend’s wedding) with a wee token for each of us at Circle—friend Marian Bantjes’ Empathy Penny. While in Hogtown, Adrian trekked over to the downtown Gladstone Hotel, plugged $2.01 into the Pennysmash Machine a few times, and got these lovely value-added pennies back…

Empathy is a fine thing to have—it truly enriches lives.

Thanks Adrian. Thanks Marian. :-)